Top Gear and The Grand Tour
 

The era has come to an end
Just watched the final Grand Tour, very good.
Clarkson, Hammond and May gave me some great entertainment over the last 20 odd years and maybe in an odd sort of way made me want to travel and see different places albeit on a bike.

Wayne

Best TV entertainment by far. Binge watched TG from the very start and was glued to the screen for two decades. Their chemistry as presentators was unique. Honed my language skills and fed my itch to do road trips.

From now on, it should be obligatory and good tradition, to prove the superiority of ones chosen mode of transport by challenges, when three random guys on their road trips cross paths. At least, do a drag race and have a beer over mocking each others vehicle.

Would be funny, if people would meet up at the challenge´s main locations to annually celebrate the airing of their epic trips. I´d be late for Christmas in Bolivia. See you at the source of the Nile next March?

Back to the studio.

I enjoyed the early series of Top Gear when it was fresh, but towards the end of the Clarkson era it got very samey, just 3 old blokes massaging each other's egos while drifting fast cars that none of their audience could ever afford, making the same programme over and over in an increasingly uninspired way and being a little bit racist.

When Clarkson got kicked off the BBC for being a private school bully his two little sidekicks tagged along, showing their loyalty to him rather than the programme that had fed them for so long. The Grand Tour was just more of the same. Watched two eps, got bored, switched off.

Meanwhile back at the Beeb, after two disastrous attempts at hosting (Evans and le Blanc) they finally seemed to find a group of presenters that clicked and reinvented the programme. It was going well until Flintoff bent himself out of shape and the BBC chickened out. I hope the "pause" is temporary. Having fun with vehicles is never going to be entirely risk free.

Meanwhile in a universe far far away, 5th Gear has moved from UK Channel 5 and is starting to make its own way. It's more of a "car show" and features tests on EVs as well as a variety of petrol ones. The presenters have serious motoring credentials (though it's a shame they couldn't get Harris instead of Reid) and an informed take on what they do. Inevitably it's less lurid then TG but I think better for it. It'll probably never get TG's viewing figures because it's a car show not a circus, but I reckon it has better prospects for longevity and there is otherwise a real gap in the market right now.

It all went downhill after Vicki Butler-Henderson left, IMO

I watched some of the 'other' Top Gears after the trio left and IMO they were not a scratch on the original. It wasn't just about the cars, it was also about them and the chemistry between them.

Yeah, that's pretty much how I felt when the trio arrived. I still sometimes watch pre-2001 episodes on YooChoob

VBH is of course one of the regulars on 5th Gear now.

It's interesting how people either loved or hated it, the majority were pro I think.
Certainly the luvvies at the BBC hated it but they had to put up with it for two reasons: firstly because the show made them unbelievable amounts of money worldwide and secondly because for many, it was excellent Sunday night family entertainment.
Clarkson's poor behaviour at last gave them an excuse.
They just didn't get what made the show work which was demonstrated by their choice of people to replace Clarkson, May and Hammond.

Oh they got it. The Clarky gang were never a unit at the outset, but they established a good routine together. That's what the Beeb sought to recreate, but with poor choices for presenters. Evans is a bellend who thought the show was going to be about him, leBlanc was OK but not a team builder. It was really only the last 3 that made it work again. Significantly McGuinness and Harris are now off making travel programmes together.

I am planning on watching the last tour thing that they did - I believe that it was around Zimbabwe and that it was good but I haven't seen any reviews of it - has anyone on here seen it yet?

I am mildly entertained by their banter but I am mainly want to see the landscapes that they encounter - food for thought for my trip.

Yes, Its a good watch, I thought so anyway....they end up going back to where it all began

Wayne